Opening Doors

Dear CFR friends and visitors of franciscanfriars.com! I’m happy to
make a contribution (hopefully the first of many…) to the CFR .com
family! I feel really blessed to make this first visit to the CFR .com
family in light of the following from papa francesco in the 49th World
Communication Day (January 23, 2015): To “visit” is to open doors,
not remaining closed in our little world, but rather going out to
others. So too the family comes alive as it reaches beyond itself;
families who do so communicate their message of life and communion,
giving comfort and hope to more fragile families, and thus build up
the Church herself, which is the family of families.

Wow! Opening doors, going out to others, coming alive, reaching beyond
oneself…awesome seasonal (Lent) and perennial (“inseason and out of
season”) qualities and virtues! Qualities and virtues so necessary for
love - the fundamental vocation of the family and of every human
person on the planet without exception. In fact, papa francesco
continues: It was in our families that the majority of us learned the
religious dimension of communication, which in the case of
Christianity is permeated with love, the love that God bestows upon us
and which we then offer to others.

So in light of this love this Lent please pray for me and pray for us
as we pray for you as we all progress and pray for one another,
growing in love overcoming all elements and traces of indifference
caused by that fatal withdrawal into ourselves. The love of God breaks
through that fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference.
The Church offers us this love of God by her teaching and especially
by her witness (papa francesco Message for Lent 2015).
Here’s to a great rest of Lent for a greater and more ardent witness
to the love that goes “to the end” (cf. Jn 13:1). May the great saint
jpii pray for us to be inflamed, as he prayed and lived to bear ardent
witness to that love which sums up the divine law and is the bond of
all perfection (cf. Col 3:14).

Ciao for now with love ands prayers in Jesus and Mary,

PS maybe you’d like to join us for the 10th annual JPII Poland Rome
Study Pilgrimage October 14 – 28, 2015. For details send us an e mail;
jp2@francescoproductions.com


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